HARD TARGET

HOLLOWPOINT

“Hard Target” — Page Twenty-Six

The day may come when someone actually does remote-command a gang of thugs via mobile video conferencing. From what I can gather it wouldn’t even be hard, which is why even someone like Fynch could set up a fairly basic system like this. Though I bet if someone actually tries it for real they’ll end up bitching about “lag” and “freeze” and probably have to reboot at least two of the smartphones in the process. Plus, I’m not sure any of the current apps let you use the rear camera, but that’ll probably be part of an upgrade if it isn’t already.

Max is listed as a “John Doe” in the records because the EMTs didn’t find a wallet in his pocket (it had fallen down the interior of his blood-soaked jacket) and they figured there was no rush since he was dead anyway. It was discovered later after he revived himself a couple of times, but by then Dr. Rhodes had taken charge. And Virgil Cicerone stepped in to keep our hero incognito.

As usual, Fynch’s diverse group of nasties are way too trigger-happy. Not that Fynch cares about killing people per se, but after that display it’s going to be hard to get any of the other hostages to cooperate much.

Pulling Triggers

Up until now, the two people shot by our assailants could – to a certain extent – be mentally excused by the audience. I mean, it was still murder, but Dr. Rhodes had punched one of the thugs, and the guy bitching about his glasses was being annoying. You know. Practically asking for it.

But here we have a nice innocent nurse who is scared and trying to cooperate, and she still gets shot in the head. There are actually some minor story reasons for it (those to be revealed later) but the main reason is so that we as an audience can now really dislike Red Headwrap and his cohorts. And of course Fynch by extension. This (as I’ve mentioned before) is a deliberate author ploy, allowing the gloves to come off as far as payback later on. Yep. Blatant triggering of the audience’s emotions.

But even though I know how it works, and I even do it myself, that doesn’t mean I’m immune to it. On the contrary. You’d think that I would be all desensitized to fictional atrocities, but in fact I still haven’t seen John Wick even though practically everyone assures me that the film is right up my alley. I’ve been resisting because my younger son warned me that the <SPOILER> gets killed early on, and while I understand perfectly well that this is done so that Mr. Wick can subsequently go on an absolute rampage, I’m still not sure I can take it.

What can I say? I have a tender, sensitive soul. You can probably tell.

Now on with the carnage.

— Bob out

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Discussion (19) ¬

Who’d a thunk Dr. Rhodes’ death was beneficial. That’s awful to say and sucks in general, despite him being fictional, but it should prevent or atleast postpone the discovery of Max’s identity. I’m going to miss you Dr. Rhodes, you were a truly good fictional person and friend. Until next time and forevermore.

Why do I get the impression that Red Headwrap wants to quote Travis Bickle, Scarface(the 1980’s one. He probably doesn’t have a clue that there is an earlier original version), and/or Hans Gruber really badly?

While I can somewhat excuse the shooting of Dr Rhodes, shooting the guy with the glasses (instead if kicking him to the floor) was IMHO meant to scare the audience, as in “We don’t need a reason to kill you, a little excuse is enough.” But shooting the nurse told the audience that cooperation is useless.

That said… as soon as they presented the photo of Max I though “Oh no, they already know who he is.” Even if they don’t have the name yet (which I didn’t realize a few days ago), if Fynch made the connection that Countdown is the guy who was nearly killed during that bank heist, he has already 90% of the picture. Just showing the photo around should yield the name real soon. This operation was much too brutal for the intended outcome, unless the idea was to drag Max out, too – which is why I initially suspected UD3 behind it, too. Good thing for Max that they can’t teleport…

Somehow I still feel some sympathy for Fynch, here only because he apparently regretted hiring these overly-brutal thugs. Had he shot the nurse, that would be different now.

(Re: “pulling Triggers” – that’s why I regretted having watched “No Country For Old Men”. The worst was that this fucker got away at the end and was not even killed by accident!!)